Configuring the MEP settings to create producer-driven Contract tests

You can configure the message exchange pattern (MEP) for an operation in Rational® Integration Tester so that you can create producer-driven Contract tests for the application based on the MEP settings that you configure.

Before you begin

You must have completed the following tasks:

Created a project. See Creating a project.
Created a logical resource and bound it to its corresponding type of physical resource.
Created a service component under the logical resource. See Creating a service component.
Created an operation under the service component. See Creating an operation.
Added a schema that is used to validate the incoming messages. See Adding a schema.

About this task

When you want to test a producer-driven Contract test, you must configure the MEP settings for the operation that the test can use at runtime. You can select from the following messaging actions:

Publish/Subscribe
Request/Reply

Depending on the messaging action that you want to test, you can select the action by using the settings on the Message Exchange Pattern tab.

Important: The MEP settings that you configure are used in the messaging action in the tests and stubs that you create in the Test Factory view. You can either use the same configuration or modify the settings before you run the tests.

You must specify the schema and root for the schema, which is used to validate the schema in incoming messages with the schema in the expected message, and then validates the contract as adhered when both the schemas match.

You can configure the MEP settings of the operation that you created for the logical resource from the Logical View.

Procedure

Double-click the operation to open the Operation dialog.
Click the Message Exchange Pattern tab, if it is not already open.
Select the messaging pattern that you want to use in your tests from the list in the Pattern field.
You can select from the following options for the MEP that are listed for selection in the Pattern field:
- Request/Reply
- Publish/Subscribe
For example, you can select the Request/Reply MEP.
Complete the following steps in the Schema panel:
1. Click Browse to select the schema and root for the schema for the outgoing messages for the Request or Publish pattern.
  
  For example, you can select the schema that you added for the Request pattern.
  
  The Select Schema dialog is displayed.
2. Select the schema that you want to use for the outgoing messages.
3. Select a root for the schema by expanding the list in the Roots panel, and then select the root for the schema for the outgoing messages.
4. Click Finish.
5. Click Browse to select the schema and root for the schema for the incoming messages for the Reply or Subscribe pattern.
  
  For example, you can select the schema that you added for the Reply pattern.
  
  The Select Schema dialog is displayed.
6. Select the schema that you want to use for the incoming messages.
7. Select a root for the schema by expanding the list in the Roots panel, and then select the root for the schema for the incoming messages.
8. Click Finish.

Complete the following steps in the Bindings panel:

Click Browse to select the physical transport and perform the following steps:

Select the physical resource as the required transport in the Select a Resource dialog box.

Refer to the following table for the options and the action you can take:


Option	Action
No	If you select No, you can select any transport in the project.
Yes	If you select Yes, you can select only transports that are referenced (directly or indirectly) by the operation that contains the test.
Only Direct	If you select Only Direct, you can select only transports that are referenced directly by the operation that contains the test.

Click OK in the Select a Resource dialog box.

Select the type of the message from the Message Type list.
Configure the message properties for the messaging pattern.

The options that are displayed are based on the type of transport that you select.

Click OK to save the MEP settings and exit from the Operation settings dialog.

Results

You have configured the MEP settings for an operation.

What to do next

You must create tests based on the MEP settings configured for the messages. See Creating a single test by using MEP or Creating multiple tests by using MEP.